Experiencing Personal Peace

Would you say that we are living in peaceful times? Whenever we look at the news, listen to the radio, read the newspaper, whatever we do to stay current we know that the world is experiencing anything but peace. But what do we define peace as being? Is it listening to the wind blow through the leaves, the smell of fresh baked bread, is it listening to your children as they play and giggle, is it taking the first bite of your favorite dessert? Is it completing a project, receiving positive words from your spouse or your boss, do we find peace in simply sitting or is our peace constantly on the go? I theorize, we never really know or experience true peace in this world and we constantly are seeking it until we find peace in God through Jesus.

The bible presents peace as a transformation in your standing before God that molds us into His image and restores our relationships with Him. This, church, is true peace, it is when we allow our lives to be changed through salvation. This king of peace can only be achieved by faith, in Christ, through God.

Peace Through Faith

Romans 5:1 ESV

1 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Justified - to be counted as righteous.

Justification is necessary because of the sin and alienation of mankind due to sin. We have rebelled against God and taken our life into our own hands. We have also become sinful and ungodly, an enemy of God, pushing God out of our lives and want little if anything to do with God. We have intentionally separated and alienated ourselves from God.

Justification is necessary because of the anger and wrath of God. “God is angry with the wicked every day” (Ps. 7:11). Sin has aroused God’s anger and wrath because of our rebellion, ungodliness, unrighteousness, sin, and turning away from Him. We have turned his back on God, pushed God away and have little to do with Him. We have not made God the center of our lives; we have broken our relationship with God. Therefore, the greatest need in our life is to discover the answer to the question: How can the relationship between man and God be restored?

God justifies us because of His Son Jesus Christ. When we believe in Jesus Christ, God takes that our faith and counts it as righteousness. The man is not righteous, but God considers and credits the man’s faith as righteousness.

Righteous - renewed in our spirit with God and living a life that reflects and confirms the new identity. We have been brought from death to life!

God is willing to justify us because He loves us that much. God loves man so much that He sent His Son into the world and sacrificed Him in order to justify man. So, God justifies us because of what Jesus has done for each and every one of us.

Jesus Christ has secured the Ideal righteousness for man. He came to earth to live a sinless and perfect life. As Man He never broke the law of God; He never went contrary to the will of God, not even once. Therefore, He stood before God and before the world as the Ideal Man, the Perfect Man, the Representative Man, and the Perfect Righteousness that could stand for the righteousness of every man.

Jesus Christ came into the world to die for man. As the Ideal Man He could take all the sins of the world upon Himself and die for every man. His death could stand for every man. He exchanged places with man by becoming the sinner (2 Co. 5:19). He bore the wrath of God against sin, bearing the condemnation for every man. Again, He was able to do this because He was the Ideal Man, and as the Ideal Man His death could stand for the death of every man.

Jesus Christ came into the world to arise from the dead and thereby to conquer death for man. As the Ideal Man, His resurrection and exaltation into the presence of God could stand for every man’s desperate need to p 90 conquer death and to be acceptable to God. His resurrected life could stand for the resurrected life of the believer.

By Faith - not by works, by money, by knowledge, but simply by placing our faith, our personal conviction and belief, in God and His Son Jesus and what He did on the cross for us. It is through our faith that God looks at us and judges us as if we are innocent. We know we are not innocent, we know we are guilty, and God knows this too, but because of the blood of Jesus Christ we are no longer stained by sin, but are seen as being as white as snow.

This peace can be described as quietness, rest, as one; literally meaning “the opposite of war”.

Peace with God does not mean escapism, a quiet atmosphere, the absence of trouble, the control of situations by positive thinking, the denial of problems, the ability to keep from facing reality. What it means is we know that we know that our relationship with God has been restored, that we have been accepted by God, we are adopted into His family, and we no longer have to fear God. He brings us true, inward, and lifelong peace. We are no longer in conflict with God but have been given peace through Christ.

Peace In Christ

Ephesians 2:14–17 ESV

14 For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility 15 by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, 16 and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. 17 And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near.

By the blood of Jesus Christ (verse 13), we now have been reconciled with God and have peace IN Christ.

Christ brings us peace when we realize that He died for us and offers us deliverance from the bondage of sin and death and a life of eternity with God.

Christ brings a deeper sense of peace when we realize that He gives the daily power to overcome the aggravating and terrible weight of anguish and guilt and loneliness and emptiness and fear.

Christ brings a still deeper sense of peace when we realize that He has brought perfect love and unity to the world—that He has eliminated all divisions and barriers and differences between God and man and between men.

Every believer who comes to Jesus Christ loves Him, and that common love among believers stirs a common love between believers. Love for Jesus Christ stirs love for all those whom Christ loves—which is everyone. Christ leads men to love one another.

Christ brings peace by breaking down all barriers (v. 14). This is a picture taken from the temple. The temple was surrounded by a series of courts. Each court had a high wall separating it from the preceding court. As one approached the temple, he entered first of all the outer Court of the Gentiles. This is where the buying and selling of animals and the exchanging of money for foreign worshippers took place (see note—Mk. 11:15). Then there was the Court of the Women. A Jewish woman was limited to this court unless she had come to make a sacrifice. The next court was the Court of the Israelites. This is where the whole congregation gathered on the great feast days and where sacrifices were handed over to the priests. The Court of the Priests was next. This court was in the temple proper where the temple itself stood. This area was considered sacred and was accessible only to the services of the priests. Finally, within the very heart of the temple stood the Holy of Holies or the Most Holy Place where the very presence of God was to dwell. Only the High Priest could enter the Holy Place and he could enter only once a year—at the great Day of Atonement.

Partition after partition separated people from the presence of God. Tablets hung around the wall of the Gentile Court announcing that if any Gentile walked into any other court, he was to be put to death. The picture is that of Jesus Christ breaking down all barriers and walls that separate man from God. All men can now approach God equally through the death of Jesus Christ. Men build all kinds of barriers and prejudices against other men.

But Christ has now done away with all barriers and prejudices. He has broken them all down by the blood of His cross. All men now approach God and become worthy on the same basis: by bowing before the cross and surrendering their lives to God’s Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Christ even broke the barrier of the law. Before Jesus, we had to approach God through the law but we quickly found out the law does not make us acceptable to God. It only pointed out our sins and inability to please God. We found ourselves unworthy and unacceptable to God by the law. Christ Himself said He did not come to do away with the law, but to fulfill the law. When Christ fulfilled the law, He became the law. He is now the way to God. There is only one thing that can now keep us away from God, and that is refusing to believe in His Son Jesus Christ.

The one who truly believes that God loves that much—enough to give His only begotten Son—becomes acceptable to God, reconciled forever and ever. God is the One who reconciles, not men. Men do not reconcile themselves to God. They cannot do enough work or enough good to become acceptable to God. Reconciliation is entirely the act of God. God is the One who reaches out to men and reconciles them unto Himself. Men receive the reconciliation of God through Jesus and that restoration brings us the peace of God.

Peace Of God

Philippians 4:6–7 ESV

6 do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

There is the charge: be anxious about nothing. The idea is that the believer is not to worry or fret about a single thing. The word nothing means not even one thing.

There is an answer to worry and anxiety, a supernatural answer: the peace of God. God will enable the believer to conquer worry and anxiety. God will overcome the trials of life for the believer, no matter how terrible and pressuring they may be. God will infuse the believer with peace—with the very peace of God Himself—a peace so great and so wonderful that it carries the believer right through the trial. Of course, this does not mean the believer is not to be concerned about the problems of life. He is, but there is a difference between concern and anxiety or worry. Concern drives us to arise and tackle the problems of life with an indomitable courage and diligence. Concern drives us to tackle and conquer all that we can handle.

We all know people who suffer greatly because of anxiety and worry; they simply lack the peace of God. Yet, the charge of Scripture is forceful: be anxious for nothing, not even for a single thing.

The remedy for anxiety and worry: prayer. The four words used for prayer show exactly how prayer is the answer to anxiety and worry.

The word prayer (proseuche) refers to the special times of prayer that we share in periods of devotion and worship. We are to have set times for prayer, times that we especially set aside for devotion and worship.

The word supplication (deesis) refers to the prayers that focus upon special needs. We feel a deep, intense need, therefore, we go before God and supplicate, that is, pour out our soul to God. Need—great need—confronts us, and the only possible help and deliverance is God. Therefore, we come and lay our need before Him as a child: crying, pleading and begging for His help, comfort, deliverance, and peace.

The word thanksgiving (eucharistia) means that we thank and praise God for all that He is and for all that He has done for us.

The word requests (aitemata) means specific and definite requests. Our praying is not to be general, but specific. We are to lay before God exactly what is needed and we are not to fear that we are being too detailed with God or bothering God. Neither are we to hold back from asking because we fear He will not answer something so specific. Too often believers fear not receiving the answer to a specific request, fear that it will show how weak they are spiritually if the request is not granted.

Note what Scripture says: “In everything” pray like this—use all four ways of praying and use them in praying for everything. Then comes the promise: peace. A peace that comes from being assured, confident, and secure in the love of God because He has overcome everything.

Closing

John 16:33 ESV

33 I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”

The resurrection makes true peace available to each one of us. We know that this world brings trials and tribulations, we cannot avoid it. However, Jesus provides an overcoming peace, one that overcomes the trials and tribulations of this world and brings us a peace that we cannot understand.

Do you have this peace? Do we have peace through faith, in Christ, and from God? Have we placed our faith and trust in the one that GIVES this true, and everlasting peace?

If you have never placed your faith in Jesus, if you have never accepted what He has done for you through His work on the cross and through the resurrection, and if you have never received the peace that only God can give, why not invite Him into your life and receive that peace today? Will you come?